Keep nets in for safety
I WOULD like to advocate for keeping the stinger nets in all year-round.
As we are now in the tourist season, people are now going to the Northern Beaches for a swim to find signs warning of crocodile sightings.
With the nets out of the water during the winter season, the tourists and residents can’t enjoy the mild ocean temperatures for a swim.
This small ask of the council is worth it for the tourism industry; not to mention the locals who swim regularly to keep fit as I have been doing for the last 33 years.
But if the nets come out, it certainly stops the broad ocean swimming for locals and tourists alike.
This swim is so very important for local morale and their health.
Most importantly, the children who come here from all walks of life, and our own, love the ocean spirit, and enjoy frolicking in the sea by the beach.
It’s the least we can offer them from our council, or we swim at our own risk?
I have witnessed many a child who feels a sense of freedom and relief owing to their circumstances, when going into the great spirit of the sea. Michael Ella, Trinity Beach 1536: Anne Boleyn, second wife of
England’s King Henry VIII, is beheaded. 1588: The Spanish Armada sets sail for England, where it is soundly defeated the following August. 1649: England is declared a
commonwealth. 1839: First Roman Catholic mass is conducted in Melbourne in a roofless store in Elizabeth Street, by the Rev Father Patrick Geoghegan. 1849: Irishman William Hamilton is arrested after firing blank shots at Queen Victoria in London. 1906: Simplon Tunnel through the Alps between Italy and Switzerland is officially opened by the King of Italy and the president of the Swiss Republic. 1924: Aviators Stanley Globre and Ivor McIntyre complete first round-Australia flight, taking 93 hours. 1967: The Soviet Union ratifies a treaty with the US and Britain banning nuclear weapons from outer space. 1994: Former US first lady Jacqueline
Kennedy Onassis dies. 1997: More than 350 people are killed when a cyclone sweeps coastal Bangladesh. 2014: Sir Jack Brabham (above), Australian three-time formula one champion, dies aged 88.